


The older he gets

by mlein80



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 23:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5604658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlein80/pseuds/mlein80
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damon visits Matt on a weekly basis to play a few card games when Matt has managed to survive as a human and is living in a retirement home now</p>
            </blockquote>





	The older he gets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fanetjuh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanetjuh/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The older you get](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5603701) by [fanetjuh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanetjuh/pseuds/fanetjuh). 



“Elena, I’m gone! I’ll be back in a bit, ok?” He didn’t wait for the answer, but left the house where they lived ever since he had gotten her back, ever since they had gotten married. He wanted to avoid the question where he went every Thursday at eleven. He had told Elena where Matt was after she had woken up, but she had only visited her friend a few times. Damon was there every Thursday at eleven fifteen. He didn’t know why. He just knew he should feel more repulsion the moment he entered the retirement home than he actually did. This was his future now. This could be him in sixty years, and even though that thought scared him to death -well, not literally, of course-, he still kept coming every week. “Donovan!” He smirked at the eye roll that exclamation got, each and every time again.  He took in his old... friend... if that was what they were, still kind of shocked of what life could do to a human. Not that he would ever show that to Matt.

He didn’t have to know how Damon felt.

“Wait, did you even lose more hair, Quarterback?” He did. He most definitely did. He hadn’t been this bald last week, Damon was sure of that.

“Well, I don’t know. I kinda lost my glasses yesterday and can’t find them anymore.”

Damon chuckled. Really... the guy was totally lost without someone taking care of him.

Seeing that Bonnie was dead, Elena was busy getting used to living again and Stefan and Caroline were... god only knew where, it would come down to him.

As it always had come down to him. “Fine, I’ll find them for you.” He scanned the room Matt lived in –ugh... depressing. He really needed to make sure that Elena and he never ended up somewhere as depressing as this place-.

And maybe he should find Matt another place as well, but he knew the man would be too stubborn to accept what he would see a charity, not understanding he would do Damon a favor as well. After all, if Matt would leave here, Damon never had to visit this hell hole again. What was he thinking when he thought this would be a good last home for Matt Donovan?

The glasses were easy enough to find. Some idiotic nurse had rearranged the magazines and the glasses had ended up being hidden behind them. He handed them to Matt. “Here, you can finally have a look at a handsome face again.”

Matt took the glasses, while Damon tried to ignore the trembling hands that had once been so agile in doing whatever the owner wanted them to do.

Damon pulled up a chair in the mean time, sitting down at the other side of the small table, squinting a bit against the light. He really should get used to the fact that he couldn’t go through a bottle of bourbon a night anymore.

Matt had noticed the same, apparently. “Damn, you look horrible.”

Damon looked at him, one eyebrow raised. Matt should be the one to talk. At least Damon still had all his teeth, and a head full of hair, more than could be said from the former quarterback. “My human body isn’t used to my average alcohol consumption yet.”, he replied, while he took the playing cards from where they always were and started to shuffled them. The last time Matt had done that, it had taken Damon ten precious minutes to get them all off the floor. And he had to stop Matt from seeking along with him. That wasn’t going to happen again.

“Yeah, I see. Is that your first grey hair?”

Damon panicked, for one short moment. Grey hairs? Come one, he was only in his mid twenties. Then he regained his composure. “Donovan, you’ll never see my grey hairs.” Because he would dye them before showing them to the world. Come on... he was vain. He had always been a bit vain. He could have a few negative character traits, couldn’t he?

“Unless some vampire sucks you dry. You might die before I do.” Donovan... always the tactful one.

Damon grinned after dealing the cards. He wondered how long it would take Matt to discover he had marked the cards. He might come here out of his own free will to spend an hour with Matt, that didn’t mean he had to lose from him as well. And there was no way he was going to die before Donovan. They had taken all the precautions one could take. The only one who could suspect they would live anywhere near was Matt, and he had the feeling not a lot of people would believe the senior if he would start to tell where they could find Damon Salvatore. Let alone that they could run into the former vampire if they would just show up at this retirement home on Thursday at eleven fifteen. “It’s not gonna happen, grey beard.” He picked his first card carefully, even when he knew he couldn’t lose anymore. “That requires intelligence and if vampires had that, they wouldn’t become human.”

Not a lot of vampires even had the will to become human again. Elena had been one of the only ones, and by extent Damon had considered it as well.

He was still surprised that he had actually done it, that he was living out the rest of his days as a normal human. As a Matt Donovan, if he had to be honest. But he liked it, more than he had thought. Life had gotten meaning again, something it had completely lost the moment Elena had been ripped away from him.

Matt had started the game as well. “Says the vampire who that became human because of a girl.”

Damon couldn’t help but chuckle, but he did punish Matt immediately by making him take five extra cards, which would make him lose the game. Maybe becoming human wasn’t one of his most intelligent ideas. It had been one of the best ones of his life, no matter the costs. “Well, if even you can reach the age of eighty-three, I should be able to get there too.” He suddenly didn’t have the patience to wait for Matt to take the cards, and he counted them for the other human, shoving them towards him. “Although, this retirement home is not exactly where I would want to spend the last years of my life.”

Matt had lasted a lot longer than Damon had ever thought... he had to admit that. He had once admitted he didn’t want the kid to die, but actually managing that, growing to become an old man? It took courage, endurance to get that far, and even though Damon would never admit it out loud, he admired that in Matt.

“I'm sure you can come up with better ways to die.” Matt answered.

Damon shrugged first, while he played on. And was winning, of course. Yes, he knew better ways to die, but to be honest... he kind of got Matt. He kind of understood why he didn’t want another way. He had survived this long, despite all the odds. “If you ever want tips or help, you know where to find me.”

Matt wouldn't.

Even though Damon would help, should Matt ever ask it, but he knew the human would never ask.

He was too stubborn, too proud for that, just like Damon himself.

“No, I’m fine.”, said Matt, just like Damon had expected him to, the moment he lost the game. As planned, of course. “Not everyone is afraid of dying.”

Afraid of dying? Was Damon afraid of dying? He didn’t want to die... not now he just had gotten Elena back. Not now he was building up the life he had longed for for sixty one years. But wanting to live wasn’t the same thing as being afraid to die, something Matt might understood better than anyone else. “I’m not afraid of dying.”, he answered, while he dealt Matt his new cards. Losing ones, of course.

“You just don’t wanna die in an elderly home with grey hair.”, Matt observed.

Heaven no... Damon would do anything if he could escape this depressing hell hole. Who wouldn’t? He started to play the next game. “I don’t wanna end up like you, Donovan.”, he said softly, more out of habit than that he really meant it. He had always talked Matt down, but the man had survived everything life threw at him, to live to an old age.

“You don’t wanna survive the supernatural world and die of old age?”

Damn that guy... why did he still even come here, every week? “Don’t give yourself too much credit, Mr blue-eyes.” Time to show who was really in charge here. He placed almost all his cards on the table, making Matt take another five. He didn’t even wait for Matt to try to grab them, he helped immediately. “Apart from surviving you didn’t do anything anyone will ever talk about.” 

Matt apparently thought he could make a chance in this game again. “No, I've never murdered an entire town and made it into the newspapers.”

For a moment Damon wanted to make an objection, saying that that had been Stefan, but then again... he had kind of done the same, more than once. “I have a whole life to make up for that.” And he was doing that. Yes, he was still drinking too much, he was still trying to adjust to a whole different lifestyle, but he had Elena, and he was determined to never make her regret the life she chose, the life they chose. He won his game, and after a look at the clock, he gathered the cards, putting them back in the box, putting them back in the place they always were standing when he got here. “You’ll die, knowing that no one will actually miss you.” Except for him. Maybe Elena as well, but Damon would miss these visits... the times they argued, and the times they were just sitting here in silence, both knowing what the other had lived through. Sometimes that was enough.

Matt reached for the box of cards, causing Damon to smile. It was not like the man would find the marks he had made... “Tell Elena I said hi!”.

Damon nodded, knowing that he wouldn’t do it. He wasn’t going to explain Elena where he went, every Thursday at eleven fifteen. She might want to come along with him, and somehow that would feel wrong. When he walked out of the door, he was wondering what would happen if he would return on Sunday already.

 

 


End file.
